Early Impact of Florida Reforms on Physician Dispensing - July 2016

By Dongchun Wang, Vennela Thumula, Te-Chun Liu

Motivated by concerns about the higher costs of physician-dispensed prescriptions in Florida, a provision of Senate Bill 662, effective July 1, 2013, requires that repackaged or relabeled prescription medications dispensed by a physician be reimbursed at 112.5 percent of the average wholesale price (AWP) set by the original manufacturer of the underlying drug, plus an $8.00 dispensing fee. In 2011, legislation in Florida also banned physicians from dispensing Schedule II and III opioids. As of April 2016, 20 states have made changes to rules governing physician dispensing.

As part of a series of WCRI studies that examine the impact of physician dispensing reforms, this report presents the early results of the price-focused reform on the frequency and costs of physician dispensing in Florida. The analysis is based on detailed transaction data for physician- and pharmacy-dispensed prescriptions filled by injured workers up through the first quarter of 2014 that capture the initial 9 months of post-reform experience. With additional data over a longer time period, we will examine the subsequent effects of the reform.